[Video description can be found below. If you use a screen reader and need to access the English or Spanish caption file transcript, go to "More..." and click on "Transcript"]

NAD President Melissa shares an update on each of the five priorities.

VIDEO DESCRIPTION AND TRANSCRIPT: Melissa is standing in front of bright green bushes outside. A small white NAD logo appears on bottom right corner.

MELISSA: Hi, I'm Melissa. It's hard to believe that summer is almost over, and I hope you all enjoyed your summer! Today's video will discuss updates on the NAD's five top priorities. The first priority is the "National Employment Resource Center", and the NAD has a work group which developed a draft of employment content that is currently in review. The work group works closely with the NAD Headquarters to ensure the website is complete with all important information during the review. The draft consists of several web pages that will be added to the NAD's website. We hope to release the web pages soon! 

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MELISSA: The second priority is "Enhance NAD Information Clearinghouse and Communications Strategy." The NAD has a committee that includes NAD staff, board members, and volunteers. The committee is working hard to gather information from different areas of importance including: medical, mental health, schools and programs of the deaf and hard of hearing, ASL courses, senior citizen services, and a lot more. The goal is to add and organize all these important resources to the NAD's website and develop communication strategies to share these resources.

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MELISSA: The third priority is "Creation of Mental Health Training Program and a Communication Hub on Health Related Information." The NAD has a Mental Health expert group under the Public Policy Committee, and that expert group is looking closely at what existing training programs are available and what gaps need to be covered with additional training. The work group is in touch with different universities to develop strategies on how to achieve this important goal. The communication hub has been added to the previous priority I mentioned, to be part of the clearinghouse and shared as appropriate.

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MELISSA: The fourth priority is "Child Protective Services and Best Practices with Respect to Language/Culture." The NAD Child Protective Services (CPS) expert group under Public Policy Committee has already developed a paper that outlines how to provide child protective services with respect for our language and culture. Now the expert group's focus is to use the paper to develop a model bill for state associations and/or individuals to emulate. The model bill can be used to amend existing state laws and regulations with requirements that mandate respect for our language and culture. 

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MELISSA: The fifth priority is "Campaign to End Language and Cultural Deprivation." The NAD has a Language Deprivation Taskforce in place and they have been meeting regularly. The taskforce has developed an action plan that includes specific objectives. Such objectives include reaching out to different organizations to sign on their support to end language and cultural deprivation. The NAD and LEAD-K continue to work together. I look forward to having an intensive LEAD-K training happen during the NAD Leadership and Training Conference (NLTC)!

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MELISSA: These are the updates regarding the NAD's five priorities. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your NAD Board Regional Representatives. Thank you!

Video fades to a soft white background with several different font types showing "NAD" very quickly. Copyright video ends with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo centered. Blue text below the logo appears, "A production of the National Association of the Deaf (copyright) 2017 All Rights Reserved".